We caught the train from Roma street Rail Station at 8:05 a.m. for the Beerwah station. It took almost 75 minutes to reach Beerwah. From Beerwah rail station we took the shuttle, run by australia zoo, which took us to destination in just 5 minutes.

At the entrance there was a metallic “Family Statue” of Irwins, holding a crocodile. I admired that and asked who were they? “You don’t know Steve Irwin and his family???” A friend of mine questioned, surprisingly.(Just like the Orient PSPO advertisement – “ye PSPO nahi jaanta”). He was (he is no more) the CROCODILE HUNTER and australia zoo is home of his family.

Ok, I will do my research on Irwins later, lets checkout the zoo – I told myself.

The day started with the zoo staff members holding the snakes, lizards in their hands as if they were the most vulnerable and harmless creatures. How close were they to those repetiles, I can’t think of doing that even in my dreams. There were turtles, crocodiles…….

At 10:30 a.m. it was the time for Elephant Feed – visitors were allowed to feed the elephants with fruits – it was fun for kids. We headed to Crocoseum to catch the 11 a.m. show. It was a kind of open air theatre – around 5000 seats and a ground / stage in the middle. Trained Staff members called upon various colorful birds, asian elephants, snakes and crocodiles. A crocodile was fed by a lady and after satisfying his hunger he laid quitely under the sun. It was amazing to see the closeness of Human being and the animals … I was wondering – If animals can understand our language and respond well to us why we humans fight with each other on some differences? ?

There was an awesome choreographic preformence by Korean dancers and in the end a song was sung to pay a tribute to Steve Irwin – their hero.

It was the time for meeting KOALAS – the most cuddly animals on the earth, i guess. It was giving an impression of a soft toy kept on a tree. So soft and not disturbed by the presence of humans. We all patted the Koala who was cuddling a staff member. Then facts about camels. A small Kids Zoo was there where kids could feed calves, goats, sheeps and see pups and piglets. there was a competition among kids to feed the animals – and immediately after that everybody was offered a handwash.

At 1:45 p.m. we headed to the food court for lunch. The staff members entertained us with python around their neck, birds sitting happily on their arms and koala in their lap.

Then we met the brush turkey (common in parks and backyard gardens) and Cassowary (endangered species)- it is a flightless bird and very tall, the tallest one I’ve seen; next to ostrich and emu and prefers fruits to other things. Watching the fauna with delight we entered the Roo Heaven – home to kangaroos and wallabies. But we met the Echidna first. I read about this spiny ant eater in my graduation and had never imagined that one day I would be meeting the animal. Its a monotreme – an egg laying mammal (nowadays found only in Australia and New Guinea) and has spines covering the body. We bought the kangaroo food and headed towards the kangaroos. They were accepting their food by humans very generously, allowing us to capture them. I was really amazed by the morphology – two short limbs, two long limbs, a very strong tail which is used while sitting and a “Pouch” (marsupium). A baby was trying to get inside the marsupium of his mother – its very difficult to describe that moment. We spent ample time with kangaroos feeding them..

Wait , there was a pony ride for kids. Kids wearing helmet enjoyed a small ride on a pony, accompanied by a staff member. South East Asia Section had tigers and elephants..and a Temple of Ganesh Bhagwan.

Ohh..it was 4 p.m. and we had to catch the last shuttle at 4:10 p.m. in order to reach the Beerwah rail station. We ran to the entrance and got the shuttle on time. From station the train started at 6:30 p.m. and we reached caboolture from where we took another train for CBD/Roma street station.

All my way in the train I was sitting completely quiet, thanking God for giving me the privilege to get an insight into a small portion of his huge and amazing creation. All I can say that Nature is Wonderful – love it and respect it.